Editor’s Note: With 2013 now upon us, RCR Wireless News has gathered predictions from leading industry analysts and executives on what they expect to see in the new year.
ABI Research predicts revenues from wireless location-based services to surpass $4 billion in 2012, bolstered by consumer applications, enterprise applications and location solutions for public safety. Wireless operators are upgrading networks to meet the demand for high-accuracy location-based services. So what will be important in wireless location in 2013?
Breakthroughs in indoor location and vertical-axis location accuracy will drive new applications and revenues. Sources cite many statistics to illustrate that we depend on mobile devices to operate in all environments. As indoor location increases in importance, so does the need to be able to locate devices on the vertical axis. The Federal Communications Commission has stated that vertical-axis location information “could greatly enhance accuracy.” The same technology will help drive commercial services such as location-based advertising.
Public safety demand will spur new location application and technology development. Hurricane Sandy once again highlighted the vital need for a high-accuracy wireless location system, deployed prior to a natural disaster, which could prove instrumental in helping authorities to alert citizens, locate victims and survivors and to help save lives. Prior to a disaster, the local police or public safety agency can create a geo-fence around the area in danger and identify all mobile devices. This information can be used to warn people and establish a record for post-disaster search efforts. Post-event mass location analytics enables authorities to trace mobile subscribers to see who may have been impacted and assign first-responder resources.
Wireless operators will announce new high-accuracy location capabilities into their networks. As they evolve their networks to LTE, many operators will deploy more robust location capabilities including the standards-based location method called RF pattern matching. Operators will rely on this and other location methods to offer highly reliable, mission-critical public safety applications as well as commercial location services in 2013.
